It is completely unclear as to what the Republicans hope to accomplish with the special committee.

FOX News has used this as a crutch to support the extremism of the Tea Party. There is one particular family, parents, father that comes on the air at FOX to demand attention to the deaths in Benghazi. The bodies have been returned to the families and I am sure they have been autopsied. I don't get it.

I would expect the US House to understand the problems in Libya when they demand someone to be held for the deaths. It is nearly impossible to carry out that outcome in Libya. 

There is hostilities between East and West Libya.

May 8,m 2014
By Esam Mohamed 

TRIPOLI, Libya: Gunmen shot (click here) and killed Libya's intelligence chief in charge of the country's eastern sector in an attack Thursday in the city of Benghazi, security officials said.

The attackers intercepted the car of spy chief Ibrahim Senussi as he was driving downtown in front of the Central Benghazi Medical Center, officials from the city's security directorate said.

As the gunmen forced Senussi's car to halt, they shot him three times - in the head, neck and chest - and he died of his wounds, said the officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to media....

The hostilities between East and West Libya are not new. What the USA did was to limit the deaths by Gaddafi, but, the hostilities were always there. There has been a real battle over a oil shipping port that has lasted something like a year.

I am fairly sure it was the As-Sidrah Port (Oil Terminal). I think East Libya still wants to split from Western Libya, so they fight a lot.

It was recently the folks at Sidrah loaded an oil tanker, "The Morning Glory" full of Libyan oil. They wanted to sell it. But, because the USA only recognizes Tripoli as the legitimate government of Libya, the US Navy intercepted the tanker and sent it back to Tripoli.

The Morning Glory is seen at the Tripoli port, March 23, 2014. 

By Hani Amera
ON BOARD THE MORNING GLORY,
Libya Sun Mar 23, 2014 7:54pm EDT

(Reuters) - A commercial oil tanker seized by U.S. forces after it loaded crude at a Libya port held by anti-government rebels has docked back in the capital Tripoli, a Reuters witness said on Sunday.

U.S. special forces boarded the tanker a week ago off Cyprus, days after it left Es Sider port, which is controlled by rebels who demand more autonomy and oil wealth in defiance of the central government. A Reuters reporter was allowed to board the Morning Glory moored near the Tripoli coast, witnessing how Libyan navy forces arrested the 21-strong crew and three rebels who had boarded the ship at Es Sider....

That happened on March 23rd and today there was an assassination of an intelligence chief.

This is not the first Libyan official to be assassinated. It happens often enough. 

I don't think the USA should be meddling. I know Cyprus and Tripoli asked for the help, but, do we have to be the Mediterranean Police? I think Cyprus got in on the issue because Turkey saw it as important. The problem with meddling is that it can come back haunt you. Turkey has enough to do, they don't have to be policing Libya.

The point is there is always and everyday a lot of hostile activity in Libya. The central government is still weak and quite frankly I think the people want it that way. They are no more scared of another Gaddafi than the USA colonists were of another king. I believe it will be at least a generation before Libyans will actually consent to sincere government structure.

The best thing that can happen within Libya that can actually begin to heal the country and bring people together is to support the people with US AID and Red Crescent. Humanitarian aid may very well bring about some stability by returning to a 'daily routine.' If there was a life to value, the turbulence might settle down.

It seems to me the fighting is not over yet. The USA as well as other nations like to assign leadership so international relations can develop and the people can move forward, but, that isn't happening in Libya regardless of every effort attempted.

There is very little any nation can do to bring about the arrest of any involved in the Benghazi attacks on the US Consulate. I want to point out, the Late Ambassador Stevens died of smoke inhalation. No one shot him. His death is equally tragic, but, who do you hold responsible? Who set the fires? It is a very difficult set of circumstances to find a reasonable final outcome that Americans would call justice.

Libya has to resolve it's chronic confrontation between East and West Libya, but, it really needs to begin by helping the people to have a life they value enough to WANT a benevolent government. They still don't want it.

Who ever expected this?

This is a crypt where the remains will be placed. A very deep crypt. This same type of entombment is conducted by churches. As a matter of fact, many Popes are buried under St. Peter's Basilica in a very similar manner.

This is the 8th and it will open to families by the 15th. Not many working days. 

My first instinct is the families need to be heard. We have come this far with them and the tragedy so horrific and the insult to the sanity of these families as horrific as the tragedy; they deserve one last hearing. Some of the families received urns of ash and dust from the site. Now this. The mourning is going to start all over again.

It is more than appropriate for Deputy Mayor Barrios-Paoli to find the time in the next few days to open a comment period for the families and learn why they object. It is the right thing to do. 

They should have unlimited access to the crypt. It should not cost them anything to enter the building. Security has to be respected, but, they can be issued credentials.

By Susan Edelman

May 4, 2014 | 5:22am

More than 8,000 remains (click here) of unidentified victims of the 9/11 attacks will be moved from a medical examiner’s lab to the new museum at the World Trade Center on May 10, officials revealed.

“This transfer will be conducted in a dignified and respectful manner, while also ensuring the protection and security of the remains during the move,” Deputy Mayor Lilliam Barrios-Paoli told victims’ relatives in an e-mail Saturday. The National September 11th Memorial & Museum will welcome special guests — including first responders and family members of the victims — from May 15 to May 20. It opens to the general public on May 21.

The “remains repository” — in the basement, 70 feet below ground — will be hidden from public view behind a wall engraved with a quote by Virgil: “No day shall erase you from the memory of time.”

The space will include a medical examiner’s office and a “Reflection Room” available only to the victims’ families.

Retired FDNY Deputy Chief Jim Riches — whose firefighter son, Jimmy, died on 9/11 — and other relatives of victims have opposed keeping the remains at the museum, which will charge admission fees up to $24 for adults.
“It’s like paying to get into a cemetery,” Riches said.

There are no new findings to justify a further investigation of Admiral Mullen's report.

by Luke Russet and Carrie Dann

House Speaker John Boehner (click here) would not say Thursday if the House GOP’s campaign arm should stop including the Benghazi attacks in fundraising appeals.

Asked three times whether the National Republican Congressional Committee should be fundraising based on what they call Democratic obstruction of the Benghazi investigation, Boehner answered only: “Our focus is on getting the answers to those families who lost their loved ones. Period.”...

The truth of the matter is, there was a report long time ago by George Schultz which stated there needed to be secure buildings for our diplomats. The specific type of building that was suppose to be standard for American diplomats is called an "Inman Building." Congress never did what they were supposed to do and our diplomats have been at risk for decades.
 

The Inman Report
Report of the Secretary of State's
Advisory Panel on Overseas Security (click here)

...The process of obtaining new buildings abroad (whether through construction or purchase) or renovating existing ones is excessively complex, time consuming and has been inadequately funded. This has meant that we have fallen further and further behind on capital projects.

The threat of technical penetration of United States diplomatic facilities has been of major concern since World War II. The techniques used by hostile governments have shown a steady increase in sophistication and subtlety. The threat is greater now than it has ever been and United States missions are at risk in many parts of the world. While the greatest risk to United States diplomatic facilities is within the Soviet Union, technical attacks have occurred in a number of other facilities worldwide...

...-- Adequate funding and new approach to overseas construction are essential. The old, business-as-usual approach cannot meet the new requirements....

 

I understand why Democrats want to boycott the Select Committee, but, the number of Democrats on the committee is not important. What is important is there are Democrats on the committee to submit evidence. That's all. The Dems don't have to participate, but, I would be sure all the pertinent information was entered into evidence. The Republicans won't. They are on a witch hunt and they have an agenda.

 

Posted: 10/10/2012 1:32 pm Updated: 10/11/2012 1:55 pm

Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) voted to cut back on funds for embassy security. (click here)

Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) acknowledged on Wednesday that House Republicans had consciously voted to reduce the funds allocated to the State Department for embassy security since winning the majority in 2010.

On Wednesday morning, CNN anchor Soledad O'Brien asked the Utah Republican if he had "voted to cut the funding for embassy security."

"Absolutely," Chaffetz said. "Look we have to make priorities and choices in this country....And we’re talking about can we get two dozen or so people into Libya to help protect our forces. When you’re in tough economic times, you have to make difficult choices. You have to prioritize things.”

For the past two years, House Republicans have continued to deprioritize the security forces protecting State Department personnel around the world. In fiscal year 2011, lawmakers shaved $128 million off of the administration's request for embassy security funding. House Republicans drained off even more funds in fiscal year 2012 -- cutting back on the department's request by $331 million. 

Consulate personnel stationed in Benghazi had allegedly expressed concerns over their safety in the months leading up to the Sept. 11 attacks that killed four Americans, including Amb. Chris Stevens. Chaffetz and Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), who chairs the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, claim those concerns were ignored.... 

Those concerns were ignored and it started with adequate funding for State Department security. Just because Republican Austerity killed four Americans in Benghazi doesn't justify a new investigation. If the monies spent on Benghazi committees and now a special committee were spent on Consulate Security, this danger would no longer exist.

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is alive and well.

By Erica Werner 
Associated Press 
May 8, 2014

...Aetna reported (click here) payment rates in "the low- to mid-80 percent range;" Wellpoint said the rate was as high as 90 percent for those whose premium had come due; the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association said 80 to 85 percent; and the Health Care Service Corporation, which sells Blue Cross Blue Shield plans in five states, pegged the rate at 83 percent or above. The figures were in line with what individual insurers have said on earnings calls with analysts and elsewhere in recent weeks....

With the torture of Clayton Lockett, Charles Warner provided with 180 day stay.

The State of Oklahoma accuses Mr. Warner's attorney of using a public campaign as a strategy to obtain a permanent stay.

Katie Fretland in Oklahoma City 
Thursday 8 May 2014


...The state (click here) said it would notify the court of any need for an additional stay in Warner's case as the review of Lockett's death continued.

"Warner's litigation conduct over the past 60 days demonstrates a strategic choice by his counsel to pursue an endless media campaign against capital punishment in Oklahoma instead of exhausting available legal remedies in the proper court," wrote Seth Branham, an assistant attorney general.

"His request for indefinite stay is merely an extension of that strategy."

Warner's attorneys welcomed the 180-day stay. "We await the results of an independent autopsy on Clayton Lockett, and expect full transparency from Oklahoma regarding all findings about what went wrong in Mr Lockett’s death," attorneys Susanna Gattoni and Seth Day said in a statement. "The extreme secrecy surrounding lethal injection that led to Mr Lockett’s agonising death must be replaced with transparency in order to ensure that executions are legal and humane."

A Democratic member of the state house of representatives, Joe Dorman, who is running against Governor Fallin, plans to hold a press conference at the state capitol on Thursday, to call for an outside investigation of Lockett’s death...

The families are still facing heartbreak instead of healing.

It's a playground. There should be some place in the area where a closed circuit camera can be installed.

By Deborah Straszheim
Publication: The Day

Published May 08. 2014 4:00AM

Mystic — The 50-pound vinyl peace sign (click here) that marked the entrance of the new playground built in memory of Grace McDonnell, one of the 20 first-graders who died in the December 2012 shootings at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, was stolen Tuesday.

Then someone claiming to have taken the sign called McDonnell's mother and told her the sign was gone, said William Lavin, founder of the "Where Angels Play Foundation," which is building playgrounds to commemorate each of the 20 children and six adults killed at the school.


"There's still a lot of ignorance and evil out there that someone could do something like that," Lavin said Wednesday.


He said the caller was a man who claimed the shooting at Sandy Hook was a hoax....

Protesters kept Trayvon's death in front of the Florida Justice System.

Natasha A. Simmons
Special to the Daily News
Posted: Thursday, May 8, 2014 7:45 am

New York summers (click here) are hot. In July, Western Kentucky University senior Demetrius Freeman, from Atlanta, a New York Times intern at the time, was enflamed enough by the Trayvon Martin march and protest to make a decision without the paper’s staff being aware....

...Six double-sided gallery stands feature 12 images of New Yorkers’ outcries over racial tension, vigilantism, police practices and gun laws rising from George Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch captain in Sanford, Fla., who shot and killed Martin, an unarmed 17-year-old black student, near his home.

“I’m sweating and dehydrated. I’m in shorts and flip-flops. It was intense, but it was grieving, a lot of grieving throughout the crowd. I just ...,” Freeman paused briefly while recalling his photo excursion. “I just wanted to get the emotion out to the world. I wanted to see how people reacted to that situation.”

As an intern at The New York Times, Freeman proved his worth by being at the right places at the right times....

James Boyd was murdered. There are many other Albuquerque citizens unjustly killled.

Until those officers are brought to justice people aren't going to stop being upset. James Boyd should not be dead. Albuquerque has to deal with that. 

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. May 8, 2014 (AP)

By RUSSELL CONTRERAS Associated Press

Outcry over recent police shootings (click here) continues to rattle New Mexico's largest city, spreading from street protests to rowdy demonstrations in government buildings.

Angry protesters took control of an Albuquerque City Council meeting this week, demanding the police chief's firing, shouting at council members and causing such a ruckus that the panel's president adjourned the meeting. Activists vow to return to Thursday's rescheduled gathering.

The backlash followed the latest police shooting this month and added to a series of recent protests over the nearly 40 shootings by Albuquerque officers since 2010. The Police Department faces intense scrutiny after the U.S. Justice Department recently released a harsh report on officers' use of force and interactions with suspects with mental illness.

Here are some key questions as federal investigators work with the city on reforms....

Vilonia, Arkansas

He's just showing off.

May 8, 2014

MOSCOW, May 8 (Xinhua) -- Russia's strategic forces (click here) conducted planned exercises Thursday in the country under the supervision of President Vladimir Putin, the Interfax news agency reported.
During the war games, a TU-95MC strategic bomber launched six air-to-ground cruise missiles, which successfully hit their targets in the Western military district.
In the North, the strategic missile forces launched a Topol RS-12M inter-continental ballistic missile (ICBM) from the sub-polar site of Plesetsk. The ICBM hit its target in the Far Eastern Kamchatka Peninsula, the Defense Ministry was quoted as saying in a statement.... 

...Meanwhile, a TOS-1 multiple rocket launcher and thermobaric weapon system failed to operate properly during drills in the Central military district. Putin has ordered the district's commander to investigate the cause of the failure....

2009 was a very interesting year. Don't tell me about Big Oil. I know about Big Oil. Keep your damn tar sands to yourself!

ALREADY, the Canadian government is completely ignoring the findings of the Obama's administration efforts with mitigating the climate crisis.

This is corruption as thick as pea soup.

By SIMON ROMERO and CLIFFORD KRAUSS

Published: May 14, 2009 

SHUSHUFINDI, Ecuador (click here) — Mention to Anita Ruíz the name of the giant oil company Chevron, and she trembles with rage. At her wooden hut here in the Amazon forest, where oil-project flares illuminate the night sky, she points to a portrait of her youngest son, who died seven years ago of leukemia at age 16.

“We believe the American oilmen created the pollution that killed my son,” said Ms. Ruíz, 58, who lives in a clearing where Texaco, the American oil company that Chevron acquired in 2001, once poured oil waste into pits used decades ago for drilling wells.

Texaco’s roughnecks are long gone, but black gunk from the pits seeps to the topsoil here and in dozens of other spots in Ecuador’s northeastern jungle. These days the only Chevron employees who visit the former oil fields, in a region where resentment against the company runs high, do so escorted by bodyguards toting guns.

They represent one side in a bitter fight that is developing into the world’s largest environmental lawsuit, with $27 billion in potential damages....

Why Nigerian deaths? Unjust death due to industry really does make most people angry.

Nigeria is 356,669 sq miles, about the size of Texas and New Mexico combined. There are 774 local governments, BUT, they are divided along ethnic and religious lines. What does anyone think is going to happen here?

...The military sought (click here) to diffuse ethnic tensions by creating 12 states, each with a share in the newly discovered oil bonanza, but this only fuelled minority demands for the creation of even more states. Today there are 36 states and 774 local government areas based on ethnicity and religion.

Revenues from oil production were divided among the states, ostensibly to enable the resource-poor to maintain social services. But successive military strongmen, politicians, corrupt bureaucrats and businessmen swindled much of the money. The people of the oil-producing areas of the Niger Delta, who bore the brunt of ecological degradation by the oil industry and human-rights abuses of the military, eventually took up arms....

The petroleum industry came into Nigeria and tribes of people were killed by their own government because the oil companies were complaining the local people were protesting. When the protesting didn't work to stop the oil pollution that was killing them and the government was in the company's back pocket the Nigerians took it on their own to try to end the environmental devastation. The companies complained to the government they are not living up to their end of the contract, so the government killed it's own people in Nigeria.

Now, when your own government kills it's own people because of a lousy oil contract, what is left to do? 

13 February 2012  
Last updated at 12:49 ET

Nigerians Living in Poverty rise to nearly 61% (click here) 

Poverty has risen in Nigeria, with almost 100 million people living on less than a $1 (£0.63) a day, despite economic growth, statistics have shown.

The National Bureau of Statistics said 60.9% of Nigerians in 2010 were living in "absolute poverty" - this figure had risen from 54.7% in 2004.

The bureau predicted this rising trend was likely to continue. 

Nigeria is Africa's biggest oil producer but the sector has been tainted by accusations of corruption.

According to the report, absolute poverty is measured by the number of people who can afford only the bare essentials of shelter, food and clothing....

What happens when people live in sustained poverty? Besides violence to achieve greater advantage. When there is no achievement for greater comfort, people turn to personal satiation. That means there needs to be greater opportunity in ways that is not necessarily recognized by traditional venues. Human trafficking can provide a venue of greater wealth and personal satiation. 
Page last updated at 09:43 GMT, Tuesday, 9 June 2009 10:43 UK

Royal Dutch Shell (click here) has agreed a $15.5m (£9.7m) out-of-court settlement in a case accusing it of complicity in human rights abuses in Nigeria.

It was brought by relatives of nine anti-oil campaigners, including author Ken Saro-Wiwa, who were hanged in 1995 by Nigeria's then military rulers. 

The oil giant strongly denies any wrongdoing and says the payment is part of a "process of reconciliation". 

The case, initiated 13 years ago, had been due for trial in the US next week.....

Shell held out in payment to Nigeria for as long as it could and realized it was a week before the trial where they would be found guilty and required to pay restoration so they settled. Interest on the dollar, you know? Why pay out any monies from the Shell treasuries before it really had to. Those pennies count over time, ask any CEO on the "bonus dole."...

...Shell has extracted oil (click here) from the Niger Delta since 1958. Shell operates a joint-venture consisting of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, Elf and Agip. Shell is by far the largest foreign oil company in Nigeria, accounting for 50 per cent of Nigeria's oil production. Nigeria generated roughly 12 per cent of Shell's oil production world-wide in the late 1990s....

...The shift from non-violent protest to militancy, (click here) and ultimately to armed struggle, was in many respects the inevitable result of the Nigerian government’s brutal repression of the Ogoni movement and the murder of its influential and charismatic leader Ken Saro - Wiwa in November 1995 (Douglas and Okonta 2003).... 

The "Genie" has to be put back in the bottle. That is not going to occur if these people are further victimized by BLAMING terrorist organizations that have also been responsible for protecting the very lives of people. This is not that terrible an issue if the global community is taking an interest and actually providing a 'real life' outcome for the people of Nigeria. 

This can be complicated in negotiations, but, it is not impossible. A long history of injustice in this country does matter. 

Where is the government investment in housing? Where is the government investment in training men to build those houses? Where is the schooling of adults and children alike? When are Nigerians going to live happy and productive lives while they enjoy their very reach cultures?  

This is generational and systematic abuse and neglect of these people by industry and their government.

Toxic? Did I hear someone say Canadian Tar Crud is toxic? Yeah, I think so.

This... from horizon to horizon

I knew about the carbon bomb that the Keystone XL had the potential to be, and that coupled with the 12 to 17 percent higher greenhouse gas emissions from its extraction, this pipeline and the continuation of production would yield more of the devastating impacts of hurricanes on my beloved Gulf Coast. It was the global warming connection, which scientists have repeatedly confirmed contributes to deadly storms like Katrina and Rita,  that launched my interest in fighting against the tar sands....

...As for the extraction process itself, Marty’s photos depicted that of an alien landscape. Comparison photos of the once lush and boldly beautiful Canadian Boreal forest next to the black and grey “mines of Mordor,” made my heart sink. As pictures of scarred earth alongside repugnant tailing ponds flashed upon the screen, I realized that big greasy balls of toxins lying at our feet are not all that Gulf Coast communities and Canadian First Nations have in common....

...Actually the list of similarities is quite long, including: toxic ponds that leech poison into water and air, similar to those found in Grand Bois, LA; a rise in asthma symptoms among children, like those living in Manchester, TX, and Baton Rouge, LA;  struggling economies and poverty stricken fence line communities, such as Port Arthur, TX, Mossville, LA, and Africatown, AL; the desolating loss of culture and subsistence living, comparable to that of Gulf Vietnamese American fisher folk, Gulf Coast First Nations and of Acadian fishing communities.

From “Cancer Valley” in Canada to “Cancer Alley” in Louisiana, and all along the Gulf Coast, - health denied, food deserted, poverty stricken, education deprived, school to prison, voiceless communities, being destroyed by industries that prefer the health of their bottom line to that of the people they effect – the quiet shame of an entire continent, pinned between a lack of representation, a bought out system of government and billions of muscular corporate dollars....

...the Keystone XL Southern Leg was green lighted by the Obama Administration. It was confirmed - the Gulf Coast would once again become the energy sacrifice zone for the nation....

...whistle blower statements of shoddy construction that harbors “dozens of anomalies, including dents and faulty welds,” and that the company has been “ignoring pipeline regulations and engineering codes.”...

...Last year, with almost no opportunity for public input or comment, the Army Corps of Engineers granted Plains Southcap a permit to build the controversial pipeline under the watershed of Big Bear Creek Lake (which provides drinking water to all of the Mobile area), through numerous wetlands, across the Escatawpa River (twice) and through Moss Point, MS – another historic African American and environmental justice community....

...Located in Jackson County, MS, Chevron's Pascagoula refinery was ranked as one of the highest polluting facilities in 2002. One year after ninety-five percent of that facility went under water during Katrina, health statistics for the area included 622 incidents of cancer, including 245 cancer related deaths. In 2007 alone, the refinery released over one million pounds of 47 different toxic chemicals; including 50,000 pounds of benzene and 150,000 pounds of ammonia. With the new intake of Canadian tar sands, high levels of life stealing, sulfur dioxide has been added to the cocktail....

Cherri Foytlin is a journalist, speaker, mother of six and wife of an oil worker, who lives in south Louisiana. She is the author of "Spill It! The Truth About the Deep Water Horizon Oil Rig Explosion," and regularly contributes to www.BridgetheGulfProject.org, the Huffington Post, and several local newspapers.

I suppose the folks in New York and the Canadian government are just a little out of touch, hun?

Americans have rights. Stop focusing on single issues. The problems with pipelines are huge. People have a right to live in a troposphere without terror by tornado. Something Canada hasn't yet to experience.

Perhaps the Canadian Prime Minister is not aware of the National Climate Assessment that President Obama addressed recently.

National Climate Assessment (click here)

How do I know the Canadian Prime Minister is in the back pocket of TransCanada? Because he is completely ignoring facts. The National Climate Assessment is real and written by real scientists with real data. Go straight to hell, do not pass go and do not collect $200.

The Canadian people should have leadership that actually cares about them rather than selling out to Wall Street.

Early on April 27, 2014, (click here) a cold front from the Rocky Mountains descended on the Plains, fueling intense thunderstorms that spun out a powerful tornado. Beginning at 7 p.m., the twister cut a swath of destruction through the small towns of Mayflower and Vilonia, Arkansas. Sixteen people were killed and 400 to 500 homes were destroyed.

Tar Sands is a Third World fuel. It is completely understandable why Cheney drove this entire mess into the mainstream USA. Cheney has no values except wealth. The Canadian Prime Minister is in the back pocket of TransCanada.

April 18, 2014 2:15 pm
By NICHOLAS BERGIN / Lincoln Journal Star

State Department (click here) officials said a challenge to Nebraska’s pipeline siting law, which has been taken up by the state Supreme Court, has called into question the path the pipeline would take through Nebraska. The department has extended a 90-day comment period for federal agencies indefinitely -- until the Nebraska route has been determined.

TransCanada needs a presidential permit to build the 36-inch-diameter, $5.4 billion crude oil pipeline from Hardisty, Alberta, to Steele City because it crosses an international border. The application process calls for eight federal agencies to comment on whether the pipeline would be in the national interest before Secretary of State John Kerry or President Barack Obama can decide whether to issue a permit....

I guess President Obama is one of those American Black men without a real appreciation for corruption in government.

How do I know Cheney is corrupt and in the back pocket of Big Oil? Because he doesn't care about the lives of Americans unless it is an agenda that delivers profits to Halliburton.

The Huffington Post Canada 
Posted: 11/01/2013 9:30 am EDT 
Updated: 11/01/2013 9:54 am EDT
 
He got through his Toronto (click here) trip without getting arrested for torture, but not without tossing a few barbs Obama’s way over the Keystone XL pipeline.

Appearing at the Toronto Global Forum on Thursday, former Vice President Dick Cheney said the Obama administration’s reluctance to approve Keystone is “totally foolish policy,” and “there is no reason in the world we shouldn’t build that pipeline,” the Toronto Star reports....

I tell you what, why doesn't everyone simply put their heads in the sand and curl up and die so the petroleum industry can run rough shod over top of any form of morality.

Damian Carrington
Wednesday 7 May 2014 
 
...."We found rising levels of CO2 (click here) are affecting human nutrition by reducing levels of very important nutrients in very important food crops," said Prof Samuel Myers, an environmental health expert at Harvard University, Boston, and lead author of the study. "From a health viewpoint, iron and zinc are hugely important."...

It is so reassuring to know the primary market of wealth in the world is the USA. At least it is necessary to keep Americans alive for Wall Street profits while they exploit the natural resources of any nation they want with the power of the USA military.

And let's face it when Earth dies, so will Wall Street and what difference will it make, at least the ride was great. 

The Phillipines have a right to know if the fisherman were poaching.

Philippine police took the fishermen and their boat into custody Tuesday in a disputed South China Sea shoal, adding the vessel was loaded with more than 350 endangered green sea turtle.

The Philippines need to find the facts, perhaps fine them and send the fishermen on their way. The Philippines should not turn this into an international incident. Charge them a fine and let China know if it is repeated the consequences will be worse. The dispute is between the two nations and should not victimize citizen fisherman to the point where they become political prisoners. 

Philippine National Police Maritime Group director, Chief Superintendent Noel Lazarus Vargas addresses the media during a news conference on the police' arrest of Chinese fishermen at one of the disputed Shoals, the Half Moon Shoal, off the South China Sea Thursday, May 8, 2014 at the police headquarters at Camp Crame northeast of Manila, Philippines.  
AP/Bullit Marquez

...It is the latest territorial spat (click here) between the two Asian nations, which have had increasingly tense disputes over two shoals and other areas of the South China Sea.
China earlier said via state media that Chinese officials lost contact with 11 fishermen after they were intercepted by armed men near Half Moon Shoal not far from the Philippines.
The shoal, called Hasa Hasa in the Philippines, is claimed by China as part of the Nansha island chain, known internationally as the Spratly Islands. The Spratlys are a major cluster of potentially oil- and gas-rich islands and reefs long disputed by China, the Philippines, Taiwan, Malaysia, Vietnam and Brunei....

Chelonia mydas

Justification: (click here)

Analysis of historic and recent published accounts indicate extensive subpopulation declines in all major ocean basins over the last three generations as a result of overexploitation of eggs and adult females at nesting beaches, juveniles and adults in foraging areas, and, to a lesser extent, incidental mortality relating to marine fisheries and degradation of marine and nesting habitats. Analyses of subpopulation changes at 32 Index Sites distributed globally (Figure 1, Table 1; see link to additional information below) show a 48% to 67% decline in the number of mature females nesting annually over the last 3–generations....

...Population trends. Based on the actual and extrapolated changes in subpopulation size at the 32 Index Sites, it is apparent that the mean annual number of nesting females has declined by 48% to 67% over the last three generations.

The Mediterranean subspecies is critically endangered. These turtles have been in the Mediterranean since the past glacial age at least.

This species (click here) is widely distributed in tropical and subtropical waters, but is under threat everywhere from over-harvesting of both eggs and adults, and from accidental mortality in the nets and long-lines of fishing fleets.

We are facing the sixth extinction. This is serious business. Fishermen have to understand they are wiping out their own ecosystems. When that happens the only thing coming out of the sea will be algae and if the oceans get too hot they can forget that, too.

These people are anarchists. They dont' recognize ANY leadership.

This is nothing short of growing terrorists in Ukraine. That is crazy. They aren't much different than Bundy. It is not reasonable to believe there will be cooperation in any talks.

I know Russia does not want to hear how these people are at fault for the violence, but, guess what, they are. These are Viktor's anarchists. The Oligarch armies. Forget this. They have to talk and negotiate or they are illegitimate.

They kicked sand in Putin's face. Yanukovych and his oligarchs are a real problem. 

Kim Hjelmgaard
USA TODAY  
7 a.m. EDT May 8, 2014

Pro-Russia separatists (click here) operating in east Ukraine will move forward with planned referendums on independence set for May 11 despite a call by Russian President Vladimir Putin to postpone the potentially provocative votes.
A self-styled Donetsk People's Republic committee announced after a meeting Thursday that it would hold the vote on Sunday as planned, the Associated Press reported.
Meanwhile, there is still no sign that Russia is withdrawing its troops from the Ukrainian border, British Foreign Minister William Hague said Thursday, as a new poll by Pew Research finds that more than two-thirds of Ukrainians back a single, unified state....

Dennis, are you bringing these drones to North Korea?

They aren't using them for airplane clubs, Dennis.

8 May 2014  
Last updated at 04:21 ET
 

Three small drones (click here) recovered near the inter-Korean border in recent months came from North Korea, South Korea's defence ministry says.

South Korean and US experts reached the conclusion based on data recovered from the unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).
Ministry spokesman Kim Min-seok said on Thursday that the finding was "clear military provocation".
Pyongyang had denied owning the drones, which were found in different locations in South Korea between March and April.
Last month, South Korean officials said a preliminary investigation showed that the drones were from the North.... 

Look at this mess. They are terrifying little children in South Korea. 

In News by Alex Moore
Apr 2, 2014

...According to NBC (click here) the drones South Korea recovered were “not comparable to the drones used by the U.S. and other nations with advanced military capabilities.” Military experts told the news outlet North Korea’s drones were “more akin to ‘a model airplane fitted with a camera.’”...

Stop buzzing Pre-School !!!!!!!!!!
 

This is the condition of the USA drone when it crashed in Iran? Oh, forget it. What are these things made of cardboard? Designed to self destruct on impact?

China has some of the worst air pollution in the world, if not the worst.

If China can reject GMOs to protect it's people, it can reject dirty Canadian Tar Sands Crud shipments.

December 27, 2013
By Richard Lopez

China rejected two shipments (click here) -- almost 546,000 tons -- of U.S. dried distillers' grain, a corn byproduct, because it contained genetically modified material, state media reported Friday. 
China's top food-quality watchdog rejected the two shipments because they contained MIR162, a special insect-resistant variety of maize developed by Syngenta, a Swiss maker of seeds and pesticides. 

The first shipment, 545,000 tons, was rejected last week in Shanghai, state media said. The second shipment, 758 tons, was rejected Monday.
MIR162 is not on the Chinese government's short list of approved grains considered genetically modified organisms, or GMO.
Still, Chinese consumers remain wary of GMO crops and some nationalist-leaning pundits have suggested the Western-dominated technology leaves China’s food supply vulnerable....